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Getting tongue in chic with parody logos

By Alexandria SymondsNew York Times

Posted:
01/06/2014 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
01/06/2014 10:55:19 AM CST

Some people spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars to ensure that designers' logos are prominently featured on their handbags, sneakers and jackets. But for $28, a different kind of fashion-insider cachet, knowing and impudent, can be bought. That's the price of a T-shirt from Reason Clothing, whose apparel uses nearly identical fonts of high-fashion labels to turn Dior into "Poor" and Fendi into "Trendi."

Reason is one of many streetwear brands dealing in label parodies. T-shirts produced by the year-old brand Conflict of Interest NYC include "Ballinciaga," "Bodega Vendetta" and "Ill Slander." A "Homies" shirt (after Hermes) made by Brian Lichtenberg of Los Angeles has been worn by Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. The designer has also spoofed Celine ("Feline") and Balmain ("Ballin").

Often, the riffs take the form of imperatives. One NYCParis T-shirt demands, "Celineme Alone," while a friendlier Criminal Damage shirt turns Givenchy into "Giveintome." A popular line of hats and shirts by the label SSUR spins the Comme des Garcons logo into an unprintable plea to calm down. (Profanity, too, is common.)

"It's fashion, but it's poking fun at high fashion," said David X. Prutting, 32, a photographer and a founder of the Billy Farrell Agency, who recently wore a Conflict of Interest shirt smattered with logo parodies to a party he was photographing at Jeffrey, the luxury boutique in the meatpacking district. "It's lower-end, obviously, but it's meant to build a community.

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Some of the designers responsible for the parodies insist they're high-fashion fans themselves. "I not only love the brands but I also am indebted to them, even financially," Lichtenberg said. "I'm wearing an Hermes bracelet right now, and the same with Balmain. I have 20 pairs of jeans. Celine, I have a bunch of accessories. It's things I love and admire."

Many fans of the parodies, too, are eager to cite their mainstream fashion bona fides. "I have really expensive stuff, but it's kind of trendy to have something poking fun," said Ricky Campbell, 32, who wore a Homies shirt to a Fashion Week party celebrating a new book of photography by the modeling agent Scott Lipps.

Greg Garry, a photo editor, has collected label-parody apparel ever since finding an accidentally misspelled shirt reading "Channel" in Chinatown nearly a decade ago. "I always call Canal Street 'Coco Canal,' " said Garry, 42. "Canal Street knocks everyone off, and now people are starting to knock Canal Street off." Favorites in his collection include a shirt by the brand House of Diehl with a Ghostbusters logo peeking out from behind the double C.

But whether lovingly intended or not, parodying the labels of haute-fashion brands can be a legally perilous endeavor. Some brands are concerned their market value is being diluted by the existence of parody items; the Reason Clothing founders, Phil Bassis and Jonathan Totaro, said they have pulled products after receiving legal notices on multiple occasions.

In one high-profile example, the designer Fahad Al-Hunaif originally made a prototype, just for fun, of a hat with a vulgar parody of Cartier. It drew so much interest that Al-Hunaif produced a limited run of the hats -- a few dozen, he estimates -- before being served with a cease-and-desist letter from Cartier. He suspects the brand found his parody after photographer Terry Richardson posted several photos to his blog of the model Cara Delevingne wearing one.

For his next project, Al-Hunaif took on the distinctive Maison Martin Margiela logo, rendering it in Arabic script. "I got two samples of the V-neck and the snapback, and then I got a cease-and-desist letter from Margiela," he said.

Garry, the collector, had another complaint. "Now that it's become a trend and I've seen so much of it lately, I might stop doing it," he said. "It's the whole Groucho Marx thing: I don't want to be part of any club that would have me as a member."